The trading evolution across four eras - from pre-electronic trading floors (pre-1990s), to the first wave of electronification (1990s), to automated trading (late 1990s-2015), to quantitative trading with ML (2015-present) - has weeded the market, so that today only a handful of truly large firms remain because serious prop shops must invest hundreds of millions in research clusters.

CTO Alex Itkin frames trading's evolution in four eras, from face-to-face trading floors to today's data-driven quantitative era. Each era weeded out players who failed to make the next leap, and today only a handful of big firms remain because serious research clusters require hundreds of millions in investment. ✦ AI generated

Alex Itkin · The Pragmatic Engineer · 2026-08-11 · original ↗

According to Itkin, competition has got tougher over time, while the number of serious players has decreased. Today, there are only a handful of really big firms, and one reason for this is cost: investment in research clusters – which serious prop shops all do – requires hundreds of millions of dollars.

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